Policeman hailed a hero after saving occupant of Marrickville home from fire

A MARRICKVILLE police officer is being hailed as a hero by colleagues after he rescued an intellectually disabled person from a house fire in the early hours of this morning.

Emergency services were called to a blaze in a special care home on Cavey St, Marrickville, around 2.20am after neighbours awoke to screams and sounds of panic from the single-storey dwelling.

With fire and rescue services unable to navigate the narrow street for some time, the male police officer broke into the house himself and rescued one of the occupants.

He suffered smoke inhalation and was transported by paramedics to hospital around 3.30am.

A NSW police spokesman said: "He’s managed to get someone out of there, which is really great news, pretty heroic."

A further three occupants of the home – described as a "halfway house for psychiatric patients" – self evacuated and were wrapped in blankets by concerned neighbours as firefighters brought the blaze under control.

It is not yet known how the fire started.

"We got woken up by these screams and we assumed it was a domestic," next door neighbour Amy Griffin said.

"Then we smelt smoke and heard this huge bang, it sounded like an explosion of glass."

Another neighbour, 22-year-old university student Matthew Benson, said he saw a panicked worker from the special care home calling for help on the street.

"She was just screaming 'fire, help', all this happened within about three minutes," Mr Benson said.

One of the bedrooms was totally destroyed in the fire, while the house suffered extensive smoke damage throughout.

The occupant rescued by the police officer also suffered smoke inhalation and was transferred to hospital.

Three fire trucks – from stations in Newtown, Marrickville and Arncliffe – attended the scene but took many minutes to reach the source of the fire due to cars parked on either side of the narrow street.